New Czech TV series What If? looks at alternative scenarios of modern Czech
history

What would happen if the Czechs still had a monarch? Or if the country’s
population was still one-third German? What would be different today if the
1948 communist coup had been defeated? These are some of the questions
explored in a new Czech TV show entitled What If which looks at some of the
turning points in modern Czech history. Rather than providing answers,
however, the creators of the new programme say they wanted to provoke
viewers to look at some of the historical milestones from a different
perspective. In this edition of Czech History, we talk to one of the
authors of the new show, Eva Vojtová.

'What if?'
“The idea for the series What If? came from my school project during my
script writing studies at Brno’s Janáček Academy of Music and
Performing Arts. The task was to come up with a TV series about history so
I started thinking about alternative or contra-factual or virtual history.
That means, what it would mean if some things in history had been
different; if some event had not happened at all or would have had a
different outcome.

“Czech TV’s Brno studio liked the idea, and asked the director Peter
Kerekes to work with us. He is well known for his films Cooking History or
66 Seasons.”

How did you choose the turning points where your storylines begin to
diverge from real history? What’s the scope of the show?

“We chose events in Czech or Czechoslovak history of the 20th century.
We talked to contemporary witnesses, and we focused on ‘living
history’, that is on events that immediately influenced present day life,
something people can remember.

“The first episode is about 1918 and it deals with the question what if
we had a king. The last one is about the 1990s and has a lot of hyperbole
and humour – what if we had prohibition.”

How did you come with the actual alternative storylines? What do you base
these speculations on?

'What if?'
“We worked with many historians and experts. For every episode we
interviewed experts from universities and so on who give the facts and also
their opinions about them. We also studied all the relevant literature
about each topic. But our alternative visions are very different; for
example, in the episode about the split of Czechoslovakia, we ask what if
the Czechs fought the Slovaks, and the historian, Professor Rychlík,
rejected the idea of this war as impossible. But in our film we anyway show
what it could have been like.”

In one of the episodes, one of your guests pointed out that once you start
making up these alternative storylines, you inevitably end up with a sort
of tree because the possibilities multiply. How did you pick among these?

“Yes, of course, there are always many possibilities, and we had to
choose one. Also, the viewers have their own opinions and visions how
things could have turned out. But I think that if we made people think
about what could have been different in their own lives, for instance, we
were successful.”

If we could talk now about some of the episodes – for example, in one of
them you talk about what would have happened if the Sudeten or ethnic
Germans had not been expelled. How would that have affected the Czech
history?

“I think that’s something many people wonder about, and I think that
people mostly think it would have been better. That’s also true about the
Sudeten Germans, or about the 1948 communist coup. In general, people tend
to think that it would have been better if it had been different.

'What if?'
“But we wanted to show that it would not necessarily have been that much
better, that if the Germans had stayed, their lives might not have been
better under communism. Or after 1948, there might not have been democracy
either but another totalitarian regime, inspired by McCarthyism. So it’s
provoking, it provides another point of view. And such a provoking theme of
course calls for all kinds of reactions, that’s clear.”

Well it has provoked reactions. Some of the reviewers for instance noted
that your alternative visions lacked realism. Was realism something you
aspired for?

“I think the question is what is really realistic. We have the facts
there but our alternative visions are independent of the experts and so on.
I think it’s a different point of view. That might be unrealistic for
some people but I’m not sure which version would be more realistic.”

Some of the episodes are about issues that are still very sensitive in the
society, for instance the one about the Sudeten Germans of another which is
about the 1948 coup. Do you think Czechs are ready to look at them from a
lighter perspective?

“We know it’s provocative and the debates on the web or reactions in
the press show that people are ready to think about such alternatives. They
might disagree but they come up with their own visions.”

Do you think the series says anything about the Czech ‘national
character’, if such a thing exists in the first place?

'What if?'
“When we talk about such sensitive topics and think about how they
affected our history, I think it says a lot about what we call the national
character. For example, the issue what if we had fought the Nazi Germany in
1938 is one of the best known topics and it could have probably changed a
lot in how Czechs see themselves.”

Do you see any serious mistakes that the Czechs made, any seriously wrong
turn the nation took?

“We did not think about wrong or right when we were working on the
series. That wasn’t an issue when we were coming up with alternative
scenarios. I don’t think that in history you can say something was wrong
or right.”

Well maybe you can – take the 1948 communist takeover for example. What
if the Czechs had stood up to the communists – we would not have had 40
years of communism. Was that not a mistake?

“If you look at it like this, that we would not have had a totalitarian
regime after 1948, then you are right of course. But our vision was
different – we wanted to suggest that it might not have been better.
Maybe there would have been another type of totalitarian regime. Our
question was, was there an atmosphere in the society calling for some kind
of totalitarianism? And we provided no answers, just more questions.”

Well it sounds like you had a lot of fun coming up with the scenarios.
What are your favourite episodes?

“I enjoyed the work very much. I would invite your listeners to watch
for instance the episodes what if a third world war had broken out in the
1960s which we shot in the bunker Výpustek in Moravia, or what if Moravia
had gained independence in the 1990s which I think is an interesting topic
also for people who don’t live in Moravia, or what if the Colorado potato
bug had won. That’s probably the most hyperbolic episode about what would
have happened if the 1950s communist propaganda had been right.”